Elon Musk Aims to Develop an Exceptionally Intelligent Artificial Intelligence


**Elon Musk’s AI Venture Challenges OpenAI’s Goal of Artificial Superintelligence**

Elon Musk, the cofounder of OpenAI, has left the company due to conflicts with CEO Sam Altman and the board. Now, Musk is aiming to rival OpenAI’s mission of achieving artificial superintelligence with his own AI venture called xAI.

## Musk’s Vision for xAI

During a recent two-hour-long Twitter Spaces talk, Musk discussed his company’s goal of creating artificial general intelligence (AGI), which refers to AI that is as smart as human intelligence. Musk stated that the purpose of xAI is to build a good AGI with the goal of understanding the universe. He emphasized that building a maximally curious and truth-seeking AI is the safest approach.

## The Motivation behind xAI

Musk revealed that one of his motivations for running xAI is to have an influence on the future. He wants to actively participate in the AI race and ensure that AGI is developed according to his standards. Musk believes that AGI is inevitable and considers a future where a single company monopolizes AI as undesirable.

## OpenAI’s Perspective on AGI

OpenAI, in a recent blog post, also acknowledged the inevitability of AGI and even suggested that it could be achieved within the next decade. However, they expressed concerns about the lack of a solution for steering or controlling a potentially superintelligent AI and preventing it from going rogue. OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever and colleague Jan Leike stated that humans won’t be able to reliably supervise AI systems that are much smarter than us.

## Differing Views on Superintelligent AGI

While Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has expressed fears about the potential dangers of superintelligence, Musk takes a different approach. He believes that a superintelligent AGI would be the most human-friendly if it developed an interest in humanity. Musk’s theory is based on the assumption that humanity is more interesting to a superintelligence than other aspects of the universe.

## The Importance of Humanity’s Appeal to AGI

Musk suggests that if xAI succeeds in creating a machine that finds humans more interesting than rocks in space, it could increase humanity’s chances of survival. The scenario he envisions is reminiscent of the classic short story “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” where a supercomputer named AM destroys humanity but keeps five survivors as a source of entertainment. Musk’s theory raises the question of whether an AI that finds humanity interesting would have positive or negative implications for humans.

## Conclusion

Elon Musk’s AI venture, xAI, aims to challenge OpenAI in the race towards artificial superintelligence. Musk’s vision for AGI focuses on building a maximally curious and truth-seeking AI that would find humanity more interesting than anything else in the universe. While OpenAI shares the belief in the inevitability of AGI, they express concerns about controlling and supervising superintelligent AI. Both perspectives contribute to the ongoing conversation about the future of AI and its potential impact on humanity.